federal reserve, despite the name, isn't a part of the government, they're separate from it. and, effectively, yea, they're the final authority on printing money. ...sort of.
see, they don't print it, the mint's do, for coin, and the bureau of engraving and printing does for bills, at least as far as physical ones go. obviously not all money is physical...
the federal reserve effectively loans the government money by, yes, creating it out of nothing. the government is then supposed to pay it back with interest, which is where the fed's changing rates to effect the economy and inflation coems from, if i understand it right.
these loans are then used as limits on what can be printed or spent.
i'm probably horribly, horribly wrong, by the way. don't take anything i'm saying here as hard truth.
but yes, they're effectively the final word.
...except for banks. you've heard of fractional reserve banking? a bank has 10,000 dollars init's holdings, but can loan out 100,000, say. well, what happens when bob gets a loan from Bank A and deposits it at Bank B? bank B add's it to it's holdings of course. which it can loan against...
but that's getting quite off topic...
Topic: I got a question about QE - page 2. (Read 254 times)
It seems to me that the Federal Reserve has the ability to print vast quantities of money into the economy simply by making it appear out of thin air. But this causes Inflation.
Is there a committee or organization that overlooks what the federal reserve does? Or are they higher than government and other entities?
Because lets be realistic , if you had a money printer , wouldn't you just go absolutely nuts with it and distribute back to the population at interest?
Is there a committee or organization that overlooks what the federal reserve does? Or are they higher than government and other entities?
Because lets be realistic , if you had a money printer , wouldn't you just go absolutely nuts with it and distribute back to the population at interest?
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